1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a document data output apparatus for outputting document data including text data constituted by characters, numeric values, and the like, and ruled line data.
2. Description of the Related Art
A wordprocessor and an office computer can generate document data including text data consisting of characters, numeric values, and the like, and ruled line data. The generated document data is printed out on predetermined paper sheets in units of pages. In this case, the positions of the respective data of the document data arranged on the paper sheets are determined by a printing format for the document data, i.e., information such as paper size, character size, character spacing, and line spacing.
Since the printing format is arbitrarily set by an operator, the set format may be inappropriate for corresponding document data. That is, if the character size, the character spacing, and the line spacing are small relative to the total data amount of document data, the overall document data may be disproportionally arranged on an upper portion of a paper sheet to which the data is output, resulting in an unbalanced printout.
In this case, in a conventional apparatus, the operator must repeatedly change the printing format until the document data is proportionally arranged on one page.
In such a printing format changing operation, problems are posed especially in a case wherein the document data includes not only text data but also ruled line data. The ruled line data is input to form a table enclosed within ruled lines on a document. The physical column and row positions of lines including such ruled line data on a paper sheet must not be shifted when the printing format is changed.
FIG. 10 shows a case wherein when document data as logical data is to be actually printed on a paper sheet, the physical output position of each data of the document data on the paper sheet, i.e., the relationship between the column and row positions on one page, is completely changed depending on the column and row pitches determined by the character size, the character spacing, and the line spacing designated by the currently set printing format.
In this case, one line of logical line data 100 stored in a document memory (not shown) does not correspond to one line on an actual paper sheet 102 but corresponds to one line delimited by a line feed code 104. In addition, the arrangement pitch (the pitch between a given character/line and the next character/line) of the characters on the paper sheet 102 is changed with a change in character size. More specifically, the number of lines by which one logical line is printed on the actual paper sheet 102 is determined by the maximum (MAX) width of the paper sheet 102 and the character size and character spacing of format data. This number of lines is determined as follows: the number of characters of one physical line=MAX paper width/(character size.times.character spacing); and the number of physical lines with respect to one logical line=the number of characters of logical line data/the number of characters of one physical line.
If a printing format, e.g., a character size, is changed in this manner, proper line feed of text data is performed to prevent the data from partially overflowing from the paper sheet 102 so as not to be printed out. With regard to ruled line data, however, since line feed cannot be performed, part of the data may overflow from the paper sheet 102 so as not be printed out, or line feed may be forcibly performed to cause wraparound to thereby destroy the form of a table.